If so, Stop it! Seriously. Get it out of my raid. Seriously.

Remember a few months ago I posted my Raiding Pet Peeves? I think I forgot one. I went on at length about people other than the raid leader calling things out. A new one that’s come to my attention more recently is this “I need buffs! Give me buffs! Now! Do it! Now!” attitude from some people.

So, what bugs me most about it? Well that’s hard to say. It may be the implication that the Buff givers aren’t planning on giving out their buffs. The Implication that they’re not doing their job, or planning to do their job. See, as a Druid, I come equipped with Gift of the Wild. Before each and every boss encounter, and some trash encounters, I will buff the entire raid. It’s what I do. It’s part of my pre-boss ritual, so to speak. To pipe up in vent or raid chat that you don’t have the buff tells me that you think I don’t know how to do my job. Do you think I know how to do my job? Well then STFU.

This buff takes a Reagent, which I have to provide or I cannot give the buff. Reagents take up a slot in my bag. I generally start a raid with 20, and unless it’s a wipefest, I never have to worry about running out. Paladins, Priests, Mages.. They all have buffs which require Reagents as well. Pretty much every Raid-Wide Hour-Long(or 30-minute long) buff that you get has some sort of reagent cost attached do it, unless there’s a glyph which removes that cost. And I’m not sure that there are many of those Glyphs out there at all.

So. Where was I going on this? Oh right. Reagents. Paladins give buffs based on class, not the whole raid. So, in a raid with 9 classes, each paladin has to use 9 reagents each time they rebuff. This means they’re probably going to WAIT UNTIL EVERYONE’S THERE! Right? Yeah… So when I see a DK begging for might while he’s the only DK of 4 that’s in the room, I get kind of peeved. Calm down skippy. We’re not pulling yet. You’re not even eating yet for Elune’s sake. When we’re all here, when we’re all just about ready to roll out and kick some Boss ass, the paladin will buff you with Might. He will not buff you with might before the rest of the DK’s are here. Why? He’s not stupid. That’s why.

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Blizz Comes through!

It looks like they’ve reset all holiday quests. So that means, if you’ve done it already this year, you can do it again. not sure if it means you HAVE to do it again if you were done. But if you weren’t DONE you have to start from scratch.

From the post here:

We’re currently aware of and looking into the following reports:

* Realms on battlegroup Retaliation (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/battlegrounds/battlegroups/) do not appear to have their fires and holiday quests reset.
* All holiday quests were reset with this hotfix. As a result, many players may note that their quest totals have automatically adjusted to properly reflect their characters’ new and current tally. These quests may be completed again, though! Also, hould they have contributed to a prior earning of an achievement (for example: “Complete 3000 Quests”), the achievement credit should still remain.
* Many players are receiving the message “You have already completed that quest” when attempting to steal Exodar and Silvermoon fires. These fires, along with all other cities’, should have reset.
* Totemic Beacons are unable to be reclaimed if destroyed. Players who are wishing to complete “Inform the Elder” are welcome to request further assistance by submitting an in-game petition.
* If players previously completed “A Thief’s Reward” prior to their realm’s reset, it’s possible they may be able to complete it again.
* With this, if players stole any city fires prior to this morning’s hotfix, they may need to doubleback and re-complete them in order to pick up a “A Thief’s Reward.”
* Some players are unable to pick up the daily “Striking Back.”

As I am still at work, I cannot log in to test on my realm, But for those who can, and were unaware… Have Fun!

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It appears that there’s been very little said about a bug with Midsummer Fire Festival, so… Here I go. 2 posts. One day. Don’t get used to it.

I logged in Sunday morning expecting to spend my day gallivanting across the continents of Azeroth Honoring and desecrating flames all across the land. How surprised was I that upon looking at my achievements pane, I already had done about 90% of this. and it’s only 90% because they added fires this year.

So I happily went to the new fires and did my thing, and then I realized, If I can’t do the rest of the fires, I’ll never get 400 Blossoms. if I don’t get 400 Blossoms, I’ll not be able to do the Pole Dancing Achievement. So, Off to Blizz Land I went in search of an answer. What did I find, at 11:30 AM on a Sunday Morning in June? I found at least 15 posts about the bug from players, and not a single response from Blizzard. It was’t until about 3:30 PM that blue first posted about it, saying that it was being looked into.

Here’s a better explanation of the issue from the blue post, here:

While the Midsummer Fire Festival event has begun, we wanted to take some time to explain that there are some currently known issues with the Festival, and to let the community know that we are working on resolving them.

The first issue, and what seems to be the most prevalent reported issue, is regarding gaining Fire Blossoms from fire quests that were completed last year. This affects the Honor the Fires and Desecrate the Fires quests, as they appear to have not reset from last year. We understand the concerns many players have about being able to obtain enough blossoms for this year to buy what they wish, and we are actively working on the issue.

Second, there have been many reports that the quest “Unusual Activity” has not reset from last year. This is being investigated by development.

In addition, we have had many players report that Crown of the Fire Festival from last year is not granting achievement credit for King of the Fire Festival. This appears to be a result of the quest not having been completed while the achievement system was live (as last Midsummer was before the achievement system was implemented). If it were to grant retroactive achievement for King of the Fire Festival, it would have been granted upon launch of the achievement system.

Now, I am not going to QQ. I trust that Blizzard will fix the problem, and I will be able to go to all of the fires and get all of the Blossoms I need and finish my achievements. But I wanted to do it on my lazy Sunday!!!!

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I’ve been reading here and there (no I will not list my sources, nosy!) that druids aren’t good tank healers. I’ve been reading some pretty heated debate on the subject, even some clais that if you’re not raid healing, you should L2P. WTF? We have Wild Growth, so we’re raid healers now, and all of our talents and spells and experience that made us the best Tank healers in TBC is all gone, and if we want to tank heal we’re gimping ourselves.

I never got the memo. You guys should have told me. I’ve been doing it wrong all along.

Wait, No I haven’t. See, all of this stuff is subjective. It all depends on if you’re running 10′s or 25′s, and what other healers you have around. Running 10′s and have a Holy Priest, Resto Shaman and Resto Druid? Druid’s tank healing! Running with a Disc Priest, Holydin, and a Druid? Raid heal! 25′s should have a little bit of everything, and depending on your Healing group a Druid can fit into either job very well and perform just as well as any other class doing the same thing.

That’s the main point. Druids can, and often do, excel at all types of healing. With our Talents we can choose to spec for raid healing, Tank healing, or anything in between. I’m using a spec that I pulled off of Lissanna’s blog when Dual Specs first hit. It was described as a:

“Nourish-focused tank healing build: What it misses is more AOE focused talents (replenish & imp tranquility). It contains Nature’s Grace and full tranquil spirit to benefit Nourish with HOT healing the most.”

I haven’t changed it at all since 3.1 began. I haven’t needed to. I generally get tasked to heal a target or 3, and my current build works just fine for that. It also works fine for Raid healing when I am tasked to do so. But the funny thing is, I feel that I shine as a tank healer more than as a raid healer.

I’ll use as an example our raid on June 9th 2009. We cleared The Siege of Ulduar and the Antechamber of Ulduar. Looking at the Kologarn fight, I was tasked on the raid, the Main Tank, and Gripped people, in that order. According to WWS I had a focus of 3.4 and I put up 3313 HPS, using Nourish and Wild growth as over 50% of my healing done. Look at one week earlier on Kologarn where my assignment was the same. Raid > Tank > Grip and I see my focus of 3.7, 3000 hps(difference in gear?) Nourish and Wild Growth again are top of the charts, with nourish putting up an impressive 46% of my healing and WG doing 25%. I’d look at this past Tuesday’s raid, but I do not see a WWS of it.

Next we look at Iron Council, where I was tasked on a single Tank for a bulk of the fight. (the one who’s target was killed second.) I can see a focus of 0.6, 4484 HPS, and Nourish and Lifebloom taking up about 70% of my healing done. (45% Nourish 28% Lifebloom) The week before? Same assignment, 0.7 Focus, 5013 HPS, 42% Nourish 22% Lifebloom. Again, no WWS of this past week’s raid.

So, that’s 2 weeks in a row where My Single Target Healing assignment pushed out more HPS than my raid healing assignment. That, to me, tells me that I am better suited to Single target healing. I don’t know what stats these other people are using, but to me HPS and live raid/dead boss are the measures of a healer. My targets lived. My healing numbers were higher.

I am sure that someone with the same exact spec as me, and similar gear could link meters that tell you the exact opposite thing and use it as proof that druids are better at raid healing. And I am sure that someone out there will tell me that I just don’t know how to Raid heal(probably 90% true). But it doesn’t matter. I’m having fun playing the game the way I like to play it, and I’m lucky enough to be in a guild with plenty of other Raid healers, which allows me to mix it up with the pallies and Disc Priests on tank assignments.

In the end. I’m not going to tell you that Druids should be Tank healers over Raid healers. I’m not going to believe you when you tell me the opposite. Druids have the ability to be the best at either job right now, and I like that just fine! Play the way you want to play, and for the love of Elune, don’t put someone else down because they do it differently than you.

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Woot!

Travel Form: Requires level 16
Flight Form: Requires level 60 (150% flight speed)
Swift Flight Form: Requires level 70

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Hell! I have 300 readers? Since when? Rock on you guys! I have plans, oh do I have plans! You’ll see. This Blog’s taking off!

I can’t tell you how honored I am that 301 pople find what I write to be interesting enough to want to come back. If I could thank each of you personally I would, but I don’t have the time. I started this blog almost as an experiment to see if I could do it and here I am almost a year and a half later still going strong.

Now, if some of you could just start commenting and giving me more ideas on what to write about!

Thanks again for stopping by!

~Maer

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The BlogAzeroth Shared topic this week is one that I kind of like. It’s one that I don’t really know the simple answers to anymore. A year ago, I could have told you which tanks would choose which healers, and vice versa, and the lists would probably jibe. A year and a half ago, in a completely different guild, on a different character in a different faction. Yeah I could have told you. Today? I have no idea.

It all depends on the situation for me, and I’ve limited my situations so much over the past 6 months that I can’t really say. I don’t know where each class shines anymore. In Heroic Nexus which tank would do the best? All of them would. In Heroic UP? Not a clue. HOL? I haven’t the foggiest.

Take me back in time to The Burning Crusade and I’ll tell you who I want tanking for me. Daimokrakken! Paladin of PWN! Daimo was the man. If I could ever get in on a group that Keed wasn’t going on, I’d love healing Daimo. Stand in the Conc and heal my lights out. That’s all I had to do. Aggro? nope they’re in the Conc. Regil was also on the top of the list, but Daimo wins out for one simple reason. Heroic Shattered Halls. Pally FTW!

Now, once I left the Alliance and made my way to the horde there’s really only one answer to the question. Browncoat. Brown was always there when you needed him and he could tank anything that got tossed his way. Browncoat was the Mother feffing man!

Now, Today? If I had to choose a tank from our corps of raiders? To run a Heroic? Hell. I don’t know. Roll a die. Tiger? Yes. Mel? Yes. Bell? Yes. Last? Yes…

Now, If they had to choose a healer, who would THEY choose? I have no idea if I’d be on the list. Possibly. Druids and Priests would probably get chosen first for their Direct and  HoT and AOE healing ability. But I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth. Would I hope that my class gets picked most often? Yes I’d hope for that. But Druids aren’t the OP healers they once were. We’re not getting picked last. I know that, but Are we still first?

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Yes. Tree form is fun. Just ask a tree druid to /dance and it’s fun. Right there. That’s all I need.

I’m not going to go on moaning that I can’t cast moonfire in treeform… You know what? I can’t cast moonfire in Dire Bear form either. Is that a problem?  I cannot cast Entangling Roots in Cat form. Can’t do it. Should I be able to? I can’t cast lifebloom in Cat form either. Nor can I cast it in Moonkin form. Is this thing broken?

It’s how the class is designed. In the feral forms, you cannot cast spells. In the Balance form you cannot use the feral abilities or  cast healing spells and in the Healing form you cannot use feral abilities or cast the Balance spells. Perhaps all of the druids who are complaining about this have been spoiled by “caster” form.

Caster form, or for the layman, Cowman form or Night Elf Form can cast any and all Balance and Resto spells. It’s gotten Druids spoiled into wanting to be able to cast both when in either of the specific forms. You know what? I hope they never allow us to do so. I actually think they should put in some “Moonkin only” spells and some “Tree of Life only” spells. That would make those forms make more sense. As it stands, all you do is gain some armor and spellpower. Why not add a moonkin form only AOE or something. Why not make Tranquility a non-channeled spell and make it TOL only? It would make sense.

When I am in Bear form, all I can do is use Bear abilities. I cannot use Cat abilities. And those Bear abilities cannot be used outside of bear form. Why are Moonkin and TOL so different from that? Were they afterthoughts?

In conclusion, do I think the inability to cast offensive spells in Tree form makes it less fun? No. That makes it unique and I enjoy being unique.

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There are so many things to do in this game that no one person can do them all. Whether it’s Raiding, Arena, BG’s, Achievements, or any mixture of those things. It’s nearly impossible to do ALL that you want to do. At least for me.

Goals… Well gee, Ratters, why didn’t I set out a list of them in the first place like you did? I guess I’m just starting mine late. It’s not a New Years Resolution, it’s a Memorial Day Resolution.

So, what are my goals? Crap… now I have to come up with a list.

Ok. I can do this. I can. really I can.

Five simple goals. I can set out five goals, right? Right? Right!

1. Become Exalted with the Cenarion Expedition to attain the title “Gardian of Cenarius”
2. Become Exalted with the 5 Horde factions.
3. See and defeat Yogg-Saron
4. Finish all Classic and Burning Crusade Dungeons (not raids)
5. Complete the Loremaster Achievement for Northrend

There. That wasn’t so hard. Now, to find the time…

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